I am always fascinated and intrigued with Science Fiction since I was a small kid. Being born in the same era as the Jetsons, Star Trek, Twilight Zone, Lost in Space, The Invaders, Land of the Giant, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Time Tunnel, Thunderbirds, Ultraman among others (1960s) will somehow influence your curiosity towards futuristic world – and that’s what happened to me. “I want to become a Scientist!” – that’s what I will answered every time someone asked me what’s my ambition.
Although I don’t really become a real scientist, but I do walked the same path of being one – as a Professor and a Researcher. I am also fortunate to be in the telco business too. This is where I was really thrilled with the pace of the wireless communications technology since the beginning of the 1st generation analog mobile communications. Seeing how the big and bulky phone with pure voice and simple sms text transformed into an integrated slim device with more than ten sensors built-in is quite exciting to everyone.
Sci-Fi movies have a big influence on me especially when watching all those gadgetry and “things” talking and responding to every command. I watched with awed and wondering whether when or will this happen during my lifetime?
Now we are in 2015, we heard the word “Internet of Things or IoT” that has been coined by Kevin Ashton in 1999 has now becoming a norm. The world is truly mobile – gadgets are becoming smaller, intelligent and powerful, cloud storage are freely available and all of these have become the essential formula for IoT’s success.
Besides changing to the latest smartphones, I have ensured my home was fully connected – I bought a Fitbit tracker to monitor my activity daily, a Withing wireless weighing machine to keep track of my weight, iHealth Wireless Blood Pressure to monitor my stress level and a small Narrative Clip to take my photo moments.
I no longer used a pen and paper for my daily journal – I’m now an avid user of iPhone’s Day One, Journal, Chronos, Rove, Heyday, Saga, Moves and many others as my personal assistant. Photos taken are automatically geo-tagged so that I remembered all the places I have been without me keying anything to the apps.
As I sat back and relaxed, I began to see how the world has changed. I asked myself again – “Am I going to see a world that has “things” talking to each other ..just like the 1960s TV series and movies?”
The environment you grew up will shape your thoughts and career.
About the Author
Dr. Mazlan Abbas is an IOT Evangelist, Thought Leader and CEO of REDtone IOT. You can reach him on LinkedIn at https://my.linkedin.com/in/mazlan/ or Twitter at http://twitter.com/mazlan_abbas . For further details, check out http://about.me/mazlan.abbas
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